'Over 50 dual nationals in Pakistan parliament'

Islamabad,
Wed, 03 Oct 2012ANI

Islamabad, Oct. 3 (ANI): The Pakistani parliament comprises of a large number of dual nationality holders, who remain unidentified due to the lack of interest of the government to identify and take action against the parliamentarians, sources have said.

The News quoted a senator, as saying that his safe assessment was that there were at least 50 dual nationals sitting in parliament alone - the National Assembly and Senate. Only recently, 11 MPs with dual nationality had been disqualified following the apex court's intervention whereas Interior Minister Rehman Malik is likely to face the same fate in the next few weeks' time.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is trying to uncover the identities of MPs with dual nationalities, but the government and parliamentary bodies are likely to give a tough time to the ECP, the paper said.

According to sources, many MPs have information about dual nationality of their colleagues but they too are not willing to come on record because of their personal relationship with such MPs.

It is said that the FIA's immigration record, particularly about the travelling data of MPs during the last six-seven years, could help identify many such MPs, the paper said.

The ECP had announced several months ago that no dual national could be elected as MPs, admitting that the commission in the past had been turning a blind eye to this constitutional violation. (ANI)